"The First World War (1914-18) stimulated a great wave of literary output, not least in the field of poetry. In an era when photography and film were still in their infancy, poems, especially those written by direct participants, were regularly published in newspapers, magazines, and as anthologies, as a means to convey to the public at home what was going on at the front."
"Yet ever 'twixt the books and his bright eyes The gleaming eagles of the legions came, And horsemen, charging under phantom skies, Went thundering past beneath the oriflamme. And now those waiting dreams are satisfied; From twilight into spacious dawn he went; His lance is broken; but he lies content With that high hour, in which he lived and died. Who found his battle in the last resort; Nor needs he any hearse to bear him hence, Who goes to join the men of Agincourt."
The First World War stimulated a significant surge in poetic output, with participant poems widely published to communicate frontline experience to the home public. Poems served as a primary medium to relay what occurred at the front when photography and film were limited. Ten representative poems capture diverse wartime experiences, collectively portraying the brutality of combat, crushed personal hopes, and the irreversible alterations imposed on survivors. One poem describes a clerk who leaves ledger work to seek battle and dies content. Biographical notes record servicemen who operated anti-aircraft guns, suffered wounds, rejoined combat, and attained commissioned rank.
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